


Three Sentence Ficlets (BtVS)

by Elizabeth Culmer (edenfalling)



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: 3 Sentence Ficathon, 3 Sentence Fiction, Depression, F/F, Femslash, Flirting, Food, Frustration, Gen, Hope, Humor, Kissing, Knives, Librarians, Libraries, Melancholy, Mentors, Prompt Fic, Sister-Sister Relationship, Sisters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-01
Updated: 2016-12-03
Packaged: 2018-02-23 11:18:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2545604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edenfalling/pseuds/Elizabeth%20Culmer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tiny ficlets written in response to various prompts.</p><p><b>1)</b> Giles gives up on keeping the Scoobies from eating and drinking in the library. <b>2)</b> Sometimes Giles sees echoes of himself in Faith. <b>3)</b> In Cleveland, Buffy takes up coloring books as an escape; Dawn notices. <b>4)</b> Faith is not subtle at flirting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Going Native

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rthstewart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rthstewart/gifts), [Snickfic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snickfic/gifts), [celeste9](https://archiveofourown.org/users/celeste9/gifts).



> These ficlet were written for various iterations of the Three Sentence Ficathon, or in response to prompts people left on my journal. (I am aware that not all of theme are actually three sentences. Shush. Nobody's perfect.)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This ficlet was written for [rthstewart](http://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org), in response to the prompt: _Giles, no eating or drinking in the library_.

It takes less than a week from the first day of school for Giles to give up on maintaining a properly clean and quiet environment in the library. He can manage the vast majority of the students -- some well-timed glares and a few low-level spells to manipulate shadows, create a creeping sensation on the back of the neck, or deliver static shocks if any food or drink get too close to the stacks work wonders -- but Willow's forlorn eyes, Xander's incessant nattering, and Buffy's blithe disregard for minor pain rapidly force him to exempt them from his wards.

He consoles himself with another terrible jelly-filled donut as he listens to his Slayer and her friends bicker over the latest crisis in this impossible town, and doesn't even twitch as the powdered sugar drifts down to coat the pages of his priceless book of prophecy.


	2. Missed Connections

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Written 2/21/15 for [snickfic](http://snickfic.dreamwidth.org), in response to the prompt: [BtVS, Faith/Giles, daggers and sheaths](http://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/119267.html?thread=4165347#cmt4165347).

Faith is sitting on a gravestone when Giles finds her, kicking her heels against the time-worn stone and picking her nails with a saw-toothed dagger that he recognizes, without surprise, as belonging to the Hriswath demon she and Buffy killed last night; she doesn't look up when he leans against a neighboring stone, just says, "Let's pretend I said I'm sorry and skip the whole heartfelt talk, 'kay?"

Giles looks at this girl like an unsheathed blade left out to rust and chip in a hostile world; sees the defensive set of her shoulders, the I'll-fuck-you-up-first bravado she wears like a second skin; and wishes for a moment that he had the time and energy to be the Watcher she deserves -- he has been where she is now, though for different reasons, and he'd prefer not to see her continue headlong down that path until she hits the same fatal wall that he's regretted for decades -- but he has Buffy to think of; Slayers don't share well; and surely Wesley will pull his head out of his arse in time to win Faith's trust.

"Your knife will last longer with proper care," he says instead of all the moral judgments she's braced to weather, and as he hands her the empty sheath he slipped from the demon's belt, he hopes she hears the message underneath the simple words.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Observant readers may notice that this ficlet was previously posted as a standalone [here on AO3](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3493571), because sometimes I don't realize I should organize things until significantly after the fact. *sigh*


	3. no friend like a sister

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Written 1/13/16 for **anonymous** , in response to the prompt: [BtVS, Buffy Summers, coloring with a box of crayons and coloring books](http://caramelsilver.livejournal.com/150194.html?thread=5021618#t5021618).

Buffy buys a coloring book one month after they move to Cleveland, one month after it becomes obvious that she hasn't escaped her unwanted and ill-fitting role as general and president of this slapdash whatever that swallowed her friendships and turned them into a bureaucracy, and starts hiding it inside the notebook she uses to look like she's being productive during meetings; instead, she brings smiling Disney princesses to life with highlighters, watching bright colors bloom into emptiness while she pays just enough attention to ask a question now and then, smile at Xander's jokes, and remind Willow to breathe.

Dawn's the one who catches her -- sneaks behind Buffy's chair on her way back from the kitchen and raises her eyebrows when Buffy doesn't shuffle pages fast enough -- and Buffy winds herself tighter and tighter through the rest of the day until her whole body feels like an electric guitar string, ready to scream at the slightest touch; but nobody comes to confront her and ask if she's feeling all right, if she's lost it, if she truly _understands_ the responsibility she has to help make a better world for all the Slayers called at her orders.

The next day, Dawn breaks into a discussion of real estate and says, "Listen, we've been arguing about all this for weeks and it's stupid; I say if we want to start a school, we should hire people who know how the charter school business works and let the rest of us split up and do what we're actually good at, whether that's magic or translation or, you know, killing vampires and assorted other menaces; and on that note, Buffy and I are moving to Rome as of next Tuesday," and Buffy doesn't think she's ever loved her sister more.


	4. won't take this lying down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Written 12/2/16 for [celeste9](http://celeste9.livejournal.com), in response to the prompt: [BtVS, Buffy/Faith, liberated](http://caramelsilver.livejournal.com/151259.html?thread=5251547#t5251547).

"Y'know, B, the nineteenth century's not your best look," Faith said, interrupting Buffy's sulk over the news that Spike had come back to life and neither he nor Angel had seen fit to pass on news of this development; "Say it with me: 'I'm a liberated modern woman and I don't need no fuckin' man.'"

Buffy rolled her eyes and shot back, "Yes, Faith, I am in fact aware that it's the twenty-first century, and it's not like I was even holding out for--" only to squeak in shock as Faith leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Buffy's mouth (with tongue! uninvited! ...but pretty smooth actually) until Buffy's body gave up waiting for input from her brain and started to respond enthusiastically on its own.

Then Faith pulled back (the cheater, not finishing what she started), murmured, "I didn't say you might not need a fuckin' woman, though; look me up once you reboot," and sauntered off like she hadn't just upended Buffy's self-image and reframed years of their prior interactions.

Oh, this meant war.


End file.
